


Landing

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: Identity Manifesto [2]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Backstory, Challenge Response, Community: whedonland, Gen, Mechanic(s), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 06:43:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/415933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Kaylee watches a ship land</p>
            </blockquote>





	Landing

**Author's Note:**

> For my Whedonland Manifesto Challenge, "Identity."

Kaylee watched another big ship enter atmo and drift down towards the dock. The sun gleamed off the burnished hull and from the silhouette she could tell it was a Mantis. Mantis was the very new, top of the line model from Kandahari Corp, replacing the Grasshopper. This was probably the ship from Hibiscus Produce Corporation, come for their monthly pick up of soy. Soy was the main thing Troy produced, and it was in high demand on the Core. Hibiscus Produce Corporation had pretty near a monopoly on Trojan soy, including her daddy's farm, and they always had the newest and best ships.

Kaylee remembered three years ago when the wave came through that the Grasshopper was finally released, replacing the Cricket, and two weeks later, Hibiscus Produce Corporation was landing one on the docks. The Mantis had come out three weeks ago, and the only entity she could imagine landing one on Troy this quickly was Hibiscus.

The Mantis gracefully set down with only a mild dust cloud, and Kaylee continued to watch, waiting for the paperwork to finish so that she could see the work begin. She was supposed to be getting a part for her uncle from the depot, and it was safely tucked into her apron pocket, but she knew he'd understand if she was a bit late once she explained why. Brand new ships didn't just land here every day!

Her Uncle Albee was the foremost mechanic on Troy. He fixed all the combines and shuttlecars and harvesters on the moon and he'd never even had a day of schooling. He always told Kaylee that no school could ever teach you to have a mech brain – it was either born in you or it wasn't.

Kaylee smiled as the Mantis roared back to life – its large arms unfolding and scooping up the large cargo pods for loading. The arms were set in the front, instead of the back, as the Grasshopper's had been, and the downward loading motion was much more graceful than the side around had been. It also seemed to take up less space, and Kaylee wished she could be up close to see it.

She was born mech minded too, but where her Uncle Albee loved the threshers and sandrunners of the ground, Kaylee was enamored with anything that flew. She'd always loved to stop and watch the ships in atmo, and she'd snuck to the docks whenever she could as a child.

When she was ten, the age that most children stopped schooling – the boys to begin apprenticing and the girls to learn homey duties, her uncle came to her. He said that he had watched her for a while now, and if she wanted to learn how to fix machines, he thought she had the right to. He promised to give her an apprenticeship as long as she worked as hard as the boys. Her mama hadn't been too thrilled, but her daddy and uncle convinced her.

And she'd been working in his mech shop ever since. In a few days, she would be seventeen, past the age when most Trojan girls married, and here she was, gawking at a Mantis loading cargo pods instead of dancing with a prospective husband. Which wasn't to say that she wasn't interested in boys, but they just couldn't compare to a fresh shipment of synchronizers.

Wistfully turning away from the docks, Kaylee hustled towards the shop. She had a spanner band to deliver and then a sandrunner wheelboard to take apart before dinner.

Just as she reached the gates, another roar from above made her pause. Spinning back around, Kaylee saw another ship entering atmo. She had to shield her eyes from the setting sun to see it, and the bulky shadow eventually resolved into the shape of an old Firefly model.

Kaylee wondered what an older bird like that was doing on Troy, but before she could even contemplate taking a step back towards town, her uncle called.

"Kaylee, girl, you back yet?"

"Coming!" She hollered, rushing through the gates. Maybe if she got the wheelboard fixed quickly tomorrow morning, she could get off early enough to go to the docks and check out the two new ships. The Firefly was an older model, but that only made it more likely that she could get a closer look. Maybe she could even get inside one for the first time.

Kaylee skipped inside the mech shop and held out the spanner band. "Did you see? _Two_ ships just docked!" she cheerfully declared.


End file.
